Is your B2B company blocking Facebook? Do this

One in five American employees are unable to access Facebook at work due to technical restrictions put in place by their employer, according to a recent Statista Workplace Survey. Many company leaders view Facebook as a potential distraction at the workplace and is therefore blocked in many networks, the survey found.

Wow! This one stat is saying:

B2Bs aren’t seeing Facebook as a viable business communication tool

B2Bs aren’t recognizing that their target audience is on Facebook

B2Bs need to be educated as to the benefits of Facebook in the business world

If you are a PR/marketing person in one of these B2B companies, then you have a significant challenge. Yes, it would be nice to get automatic buy-in about incorporating Facebook into your B2B’s PR program, but that’s not reality. You can’t give up though. It is your job to educate your internal clients on Facebook’s advantages for a company’s bottom line, and here are three steps to help you along the way.

Talk their language

When you are making the pitch to senior leadership about the values of Facebook in the business world, speak their language. Business leaders look at numbers. They are focused on the growth of the firm and its bottom line. Give them all of that information and then make the connection how it can help grow their B2B company. Here are some key Facebook stats that would be relevant to B2B senior leaders:

Worldwide, there are more than 1.5 billion active Facebook users, a 23 percent increase from March 2012. (Source: Facebook)

4.5 billion likes generated daily as of May 2013, which is a 67 percent increase from August 2012. (Source: Facebook)

16 million local business pages have been created as of May 2013, a 100 percent increase from 8 million in June 2012. (Source: Facebook)

Explain how Facebook is a viable communication tool for reaching their target audience. Using the platform effectively can help grow the company’s brand awareness – continuously increasing user engagement and building online relationships with potential and current customers. If you speak on the values of Facebook for B2B businesses in their language, then the message will resonate with the audience.

Take a strategic approach

When you make the pitch to senior leaders, take a strategic approach and present them with a plan with deadlines and goals. Create an editorial calendar for your posts. Examine Facebook Insights so that you can gauge the reach and user engagement of your posts and page and then track those results.

Show results

Again, your B2B senior leaders like to see quantifiable results. That is why it is so essential to have a strategic plan for your page that you are tracking. Be sure to follow up with your firm leaders and show them the results. Then explain why these results are helping the overall growth of the business. Educate them through these results as to the value of a B2B Facebook page.